Unlike Itunes’s terms and conditions, naivety is a childhood precondition that we just can’t agree to and skip without fully reading it. Our outlook on the world as kids was simple and malleable, and of course our sponge brains helped a great deal. We used to believe a lot of dumb things, both on our own and with the help of adults. We believed that grownups are wise and knew what they were talking about. Then, life slapped us on the face, gave us a reality check and now we know better.

Here are 12 ridiculous things we thought were set-in-stone facts as kids: 

 

1. If you leave food on your plate, it will haunt you yom el eyama 

Remember when our moms used to tell us that the rice we don’t eat will run after us yom el eyama and make us regret leaving it behind on the plate? What was that about? But most importantly, WHY is that about?

2. That Omena El Ghola was real 

Omena El ghola was a terrifying entity created by parents to make their kids behave. “Omena El Ghola likes to eat children who stay up past their bedtime”. Yes mom, sure!

3. That women got pregnant by kissing

The innocence of a child really has no parallel which is why I’m so sad for kids these days with the Internet feeding them all the information early on. When we were kids, we believed that women got pregnant when a guy kissed them because if you kiss someone, then you’re automatically married.

4. ATMs gave you free money 

If only this was true! Whenever I wanted to to buy something new and my mom would tell me there’s not enough money, I would tell her to go get some from the “money machine”.

5. That all cats are females and all dogs are males 

We were all sexist kids.

6. Leaving your shoes facing upwards is disrespectful to God

Our mothers and aunts used to warn us not to leave our shoes upside down, because it faces the sky and the sky is where God lives. Superstition much?

7. That cutting the air with scissors kills angels

We were scolded for subconsciously cutting the air with scissors because when we do that, we kill the angels that were passing by and saying hi.

8. That the sun is following you 

We all believed that the sun was following us, because we still hadn’t studied astronomy in science class. We thought we were pretty special for having such a bright, big and powerful entity following us around.

9. Swallowing a seed will grow whatever it is inside your stomach 

For instance, if we swallow a watermelon seed, a big watermelon will grow inside our stomachs. Perhaps this is how we get pregnant?

10. If you cross your eyes, they will stay that way FOREVER

Baby Cross eyes

The truth is that there’s no harm in voluntary eye crossing, so thank you parents and aunts all over for scaring us into thinking we could remain looking like that forever.

11. That televisions had people living inside of them

We all wondered what happened to the little people inside the TV when we switched it off and how were they able to switch their positions when we would turn it back on!

12. That life used to be black and white just like old movies

I remember telling my mom one day: “I would like to know who created the color blue so I would thank them”. My mom looked bewildered and thought she had a dumb child, and that was how I figured out that life was always in colors and it was only the movies that were shot in black and white.

 

So every time you think adults have the answers to all of our questions and are superheroes who know best, think again. Because now that we’ve grown up and have become adults ourselves, we know just how much we know nothing.